Camera Buff

I was actually hoping that I wouldn't feel obligated to write about this Kieslowski film, but it turns out that it was too damn good. In fact, I may be willing to call this his finest non-Decalogue/Three Colors film. A man buys an 8mm motion picture camera to film his new born daughter. Soon, his company is asking him to make films on behalf of the company. As he makes them, the boss of the company begins to give him "suggestions" on how to re-edit his films, eliminating certain shots that may not make sense or do justice to the company. He begins to develop as a filmmaker and even sends some of his short documentaries to film festivals where he receives feedback and meets other filmmakers and critics. As he begins to enjoy filmmaking more and more his relationship with his wife becomes strained, and the company isn't always keen on his choices of subjects. The may be the finest film ever made about the (film/documentary) artists' dilemma. Questions arise such as whose films are they, the filmmakers or the company who pays for them. What moral obligations does the filmmaker have. He makes a short documentary on a dwarf that works at his factory -- a positive piece about a productive member of the company who has been accepted in his surroundings. But when the film goes public, the dwarf is fired due other ramifications of the films success. A film is never just a film and there may be consequences even when it sets out to praise its subject. Many claim that the documentary is, by its very nature, and exploitive art, and that concept is clearly shown in this film. Kieslowski himself started out as a documentarian, but quit for that very reason. Many of the questions that filmmaker (should) invariably find themselves asking are asked in this film. You never know what damage your camera can do until you turn the lens on yourself and experience it as your subjects do. I don't feel that this synopsis does the film justice, because it made me realize many ways in which even I feel that I have lost touch as a filmmaker. The simplicity and poignancy of some of the short documetaries he makes reminds me of in the Soviet innovators during the silent era. And it also helped me to recognize the true purity of moving images with no sound or even music. We have lost many such concepts today, and in a big way. It's also worth mentioning that this is one of Kieslowski's most lighthearted films, in the same vain as Decalogue 10 and Three Colors: White. I found myself laughing a number of times throughout -- a rarity for his films. I highly recommend this film for any camera buff.